|
At the very least, Whittaker might get a few charming and likable bits before the script starts insisting that she play the Doctor as passively as possible again. Because we can't have 13 written as having confidence or inventiveness or mystery or anger like any other previous incarnation. Wait....this entire arc is going to be pushing the timeless child thing more and more isn't it? 
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2021 16:00
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 02:24 |
|
|
Looks it's all blowing up with Bill Baggs and BBV Productions online at the moment, due to them hiring a known sexual predator for a role, and Baggs trying to shut down all criticism of it on Twitter. Apparently he still owes a lot of people money too.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2021 20:08
|
|
|
Dan is already much better than Yaz. I missed the first few minutes so I'm going to watch them on iplayer. We've had fifty years of development and stories for the Master, but I guess Chinball has decided that this bloke who looks like a recycled design from the Tim Shaw guy is THE DOCTOR'S TRUE AND SECRET ARCHNEMESIS all along. Plus with all the 7 pulled, this rings a little hollow in comparison.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2021 20:22
|
|
|
TinTower posted:Also, the Big Bad is totally Crispy Master, right? I was thinking that for a moment, but it doesn't make timeline sense, and honestly Beevers utterly owns the role of the 13th Master, so recasting would be a shame.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2021 20:24
|
|
|
The Sontaran stuff was fun. After the timeless child stuff thing, am I the only one worried that Chibnall is going to be all the frozen people on the planet time where the real time lords all along, those guys on Gallifrey were just posers ALL ALONG!!!, but hopefully not. Also was Whittaker's hair noticeably different this episode?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2021 20:44
|
|
|
Jerusalem posted:Taking the most charitable view, I'm going to assume it'll be something that stands distinct in some way that he wants to jam into the show's continuity, like time didn't used to exist and everything was just a chaotic flux of everything and nothing at once and then time got established thanks to the Mouri or whatever, the universe assembled into something resembling order with the Sugar Skull Gang imprisoned to prevent them unraveling it, and then Rassilon and Omega came along however long later and invented time travel and Rassilon elevated selected Gallifreyans into Time Lords etc. The thing is 'Rassilon was bad actually' is ground that has been well trodden by the expanded universe stuff, and has been part of the TV lore with the Timothy Dalton episodes.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2021 21:07
|
|
|
Jerusalem posted:I'm not sure if you took my post to be an endorsement of Rassilon or something or I'm just misunderstanding what you're saying here? But yeah Rassilon has been shown to be a monster as far back as The Five Doctors where the 2nd Doctor reveals that the image of him as a benevolent and wise ruler masked some incredibly hosed up things he did. Hell, maybe it even gets brought up in The Three Doctors? I can't remember if it is revealed there that Rassilon knowingly let Omega suffer for eternity in order to create time travel or that got retconned in later? Hell, I can't even remember if Rassilon is named in that serial or if he didn't get mentioned until the 4th Doctor's time? Oh what I was saying is that Chibnall acts like that's some huge twist in the Timeless Children, even though the audience already knows that information, most likely.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2021 21:24
|
|
|
Jerusalem posted:Oh yeah that was another weird thing, why the woman who found the Timeless Child wasn't Rassilon as opposed to ... I don't know, Chibnall's names are utterly forgettable, they keep saying what the Sugar Skull Gang's names are and I can't remember apart from "The Passenger".... since Rassilon is absolutely the kind of huge rear end in a top hat who would happily experiment on a kid they genuinely loved if they thought they could get some benefit out of it. Fun fact: The actor who played Rassilon in The Timeless Children was picked so they could keep continuity with Zagreus of all things. Time Lord lore has been built bit by bit by wildly different writing teams, but it largely fits together. Not so much for Rassilon, where his history makes little sense. But then, I guess that fits the 'he whitewashed his own image' thing that's been attached to the character since The Five Doctors. Yep, introducing the Doctor's super secret long forgotten archenemy and having the name be....Swarm is a bit underwhelming. The Master is a good villain name, it tells you a lot about the character and how they see themselves, and contrasts with the hero's name. Swarm sounds placeholder-y.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2021 21:58
|
|
|
Jerusalem posted:Rassilon was in The Timeless Children? I don't recall that at all. Or do you just mean the woman who got given some other weird name instead? There's a shot of three people in Gallifreyan robes - Tecteun, Omega and Rassilon, according to the script.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2021 22:12
|
|
|
I have a sneaking suspicion that the impossible house is going to be Lungbarrow, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong on that. One moment I did really like was 13 being affectionate to the TARDIS and trying to comfort it as it was in distress. Outside of the Ghost Monument, we've not seen masses of that in this era.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2021 22:19
|
|
|
Jerusalem posted:Oh yeah just wanna rave again about how loving cool the impossible house looked. I really want to know more about that. That panning shot where they pulled out from Whittaker was really, really well done. Dan is now officially the second best Scouse companion. OldMemes fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Nov 7, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2021 22:28
|
|
|
Khanstant posted:I tend to also think it's a matter of disordered time vs arrow of time, with these people basically being the ancient greek myth weavers who like spun thread of everyone's fate in history or whatever to organize reality. Actually I just looked up the name because I kept thinking it was the muses who did that but they're the art bosses, and they're literally called the Moirai / The Fates, so I feel dumb for not just recognizing that outright. If I'm remembering my deep cut Doctor Who lore right, didn't Rassilon start the 'anchoring of the thread' which created the web of time, and that caused the Sisterhood of Karn to split off from the Time Lords and remove the Time Lord's ability to reproduce naturally, meaning that the Looms needed to be made to repopulate the species? Man, Doctor Who lore is weird.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 13, 2021 00:10
|
|
|
Mention of the Dark Times, so I'm guessing the Temple is part of Rassilon's web of time creation. Jo Martin as the Minus One Doctor again! But she doesn't really act anymore morally ambiguous or ruthless than the numbered Doctors have? The green screen seemed worse this episode. Bel was great, and Vinder has had more personality and plot development in three episodes than Yaz has in three seasons.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 14, 2021 20:35
|
|
|
Especially with how wonderfully done the War Doctor was, Ruth seems like Chibnall rushing in and shouting "wait, I can do that too!". Which is a shame, because Jo Martin has been outstanding in all of her screentime. The timestream stuff felt like "The Name of the Doctor" but less satisfying.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 14, 2021 20:49
|
|
|
In Doom Coalition, Helen and Liv were able to keep Angels at bay by winking, not blinking. At least the suspense was kept up, and it's probably the strongest horror episode of the Whittaker run. Though if the Division is still active, that creates even more plot holes, like why they'd ignore the Doctor in all of her previous incarnations?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 21, 2021 20:21
|
|
|
Also the Division didn't extract the Doctor when she was chilling in space prison for twenty years because....? Are they even a Time Lord organization? They just seem to have increasingly absurd reach while also not really doing anything.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 21, 2021 20:30
|
|
|
I thought the idea was that a nearby angel could possess the image and use it to teleport itself to a new place, not that it made a new one? What could the Division even offer the angels to get them to co-operate? In Doom Coalition it was literally 'universe is ending, get on board if you want to survive'. What leverage would they have normally?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2021 00:27
|
|
|
There were moments of alrightness (Kate Stewart is a wonderful character), but the Timeless Child stuff is increasingly stupid. After all these lifetimes of adventures in time and space, talking about the thrill of adventure, the Doctor would rather have been left at some big portal? I'm trying to imagine any other incarnation having a reaction other than " no"For fun, try to picture the Sixth Doctor listening to the bad Time Lady ramble on and on. The Timeless Child stuff feels like bad fan-fic. OldMemes fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Nov 28, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2021 20:24
|
|
|
So the Doctor worked for the Division with magic unlimited regeneration, then they just decided to delete that ability and turn her into a child that would become the First Doctor for....reasons? Yet she still referred to herself as the Doctor and had a TARDIS shaped like a police box? EDIT: Isn't the Master meant to be showing up at some point in Flux too, iirc? I'm guessing that'll be the cliffhanger for the New Year's Special. OldMemes fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Nov 28, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2021 20:49
|
|
|
Honestly at this point going full Lungbarrow and saying that the Fugitive Doctor threw herself into the Looms and her biodata was recreated into the child First Doctor makes more sense.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2021 19:26
|
|
|
Sylvester McCoy is great at light comedy and also being really sinister. I'm always baffled at the people who don't like his Doctor. Anyway, the recent audios I've listened to: The Wrong Doctors - Two Sixth Doctors! It's a little confusing, but Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford do a great job here, especially trying to make the different versions of their characters sound different. House of Blue Fire - Really nice atmosphere, and a creepy empty house is something the franchise does well. McCoy is great, with the Doctor gently prodding the other characters to try and figure out what's happening, switching into a more compassionate mode, then going all dark and mysterious. Loups-Garoux - Solid enough early effort, but I don't think I've watched a Turlough serial, so the character was new to me. There's some really bad sound issues, and the quality of the audio goes up and down wildly at times, to the point where it's distracting.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 5, 2021 01:08
|
|
|
What was the point of any of that? I'm guessing a big chunk of the universe being smashed up wasn't important at all? The annoying thing is we got some fun new characters: Dan, Vinder, Jericho, Bel, Claire etc. But they didn't matter. We didn't even get the Doctor having a "I know my lives and who I am, all fourteen of them. The rest don't define me." or whatever.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 5, 2021 20:26
|
|
|
The_Doctor posted:So what exactly was it that Yaz, Dan, and Jericho spent 3-4 years searching for exactly? Hints to the Flux or something? Which was written on clay pots because ??? Next episode is called Eve of the Daleks and has a time loop plot, apparently.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 5, 2021 20:31
|
|
|
Throughout the entire episode I had a deep seated sense of unease that random characters were going to be revealed to be secret incarnations of the Doctor. Remember the end of 12's run? That was a good end.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2021 20:18
|
|
|
So the flux itself was basically pointless. It seemed more like a mild inconvenience than anything. The Doctor being split across three plains of reality felt very Matt Smith though. OldMemes fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Dec 6, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2021 21:23
|
|
|
Flux is a handful of great ideas thrown into an incoherent mess. I just listened Spare Parts for the first time, and it lives up to its reputation. It drips atmosphere - Mondas being a cold, barren version of 1950s Earth where all the resources are gone is so well done, and you can feel the slippery slope of compromises that leads to the cybermen. It would have been easy to do a copy paste of Genesis of the Daleks, but instead its a story about scared people who are willing to do horrible things to keep going. I do like that the last Capaldi episodes went out of their way to keep this canon, because its something special. I also listened to Return of the Krotons, but I'm not entirely sure what a Kroton is still. I'm going to grab The Last Adventure, because it's on sale for a decent price at least! OldMemes fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Dec 11, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 11, 2021 22:29
|
|
|
The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure is so, so good. Colin Baker is normally excellent, but in this he's on top form, as is Michael Jayston as the Valeyard. And the difference between 80s Bonnie Langford and modern Bonnie Langford is night and day.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2021 15:47
|
|
|
With the War Doctor boxsets, it did feel like only the second and fourth ones really dealt with how confusing and awful a war based around time travel and the fabric of the universe fraying could be - the first one is a really well done story though. Honestly John Hurt's performance is the main attraction to the boxsets - he's so good that it papers over the flaws in the storytelling. His strained relationship with Ollistra is the heart of the stories, and Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce play off each other wonderfully (Beth Chalmers has a fun reoccurring role too).
|
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2021 01:03
|
|
|
One way they could have had their cake and eaten is saying that the Timeless Child wasn't the Doctor, but instead a blank slate that had countless different Time Lord personas chameleon arched onto it. The version that 13 met had a possible future incarnation of the Doctor copied onto it. That's why Division had to mothball the Timeless Child project, they were getting too much attention from the Time Lords after that little stunt. Therefore, Jo Martin could play the 14th Doctor, because the Fugitive Doctor wasn't the Doctor, but a future incarnation's persona copied onto a blank slate. Also did the Doctor accidentally leave that one random Ood as the head of Division? But yeah, The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure is a great boxset. You get three good stories, then the Sixth Doctor's final battle against the Valeyard, and Baker is on fire throughout the entire episode. The Valeyard and the Doctor's last exchange is wonderful, as the Doctor traps the Valeyard in the Matrix, declaring that a future as the Valeyard is no future at all, and giving a wonderful speech on the joys of friendship and discovery and adventure (which, if we boil it down, isn't that what this series is about?), before finally rejecting the Valeyard. "And what about your precious moral scruples?!" "...They died with me"  and of course  "It's far from over! Our future is in safe hands."OldMemes fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Dec 15, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2021 21:44
|
|
|
I'm listening to Dreamtime and I have literally no idea what is happening. Like I have no idea where the characters are, what's happening who even who most of them are. Considering this is meant to be Hex's settling in story after his introduction, it's very confusing.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2021 00:18
|
|
|
The Doctor opens the fobwatch, and sees a vision of the Fugitive Doctor, who says "Looms are canon". End scene.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2021 00:28
|
|
|
Sydney Bottocks posted:Watching Davison's last season, currently on episode one of "Planet of Fire" and while I'll comment on the season as a whole once I'm done with it, I had to break away for a moment and say oh my GOD the "American" accents Peri and her stepdad Howard are trying to pull off are loving awful. At times they might as well just be doing Aussie accents, they're that bad. JNT must have been snorting all the coke in the British Isles or something to think "yes, this will absolutely appeal to the Yanks". They really did Peri wrong with that accent. Nicola Byrant has a really nice speaking voice (she's done tons of voiceover work), so why they got her to do an accent she struggled with was just baffling. While Peri gets much better writing in Big Finish, the downside is that Byrant is stuck with the accent whenever she reprises the character - but she's noticeably toned it down in recent years, and it helps the character a lot. Peri and the Piscon Paradox is a great story, for example.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2021 18:42
|
|
|
Shada being half finished is a lot of its allure. The fact that a good chunk of it was actually filmed, rather than just being a rejected script like most of the 'lost stories'. I couldn't decide what to watch tonight, so I'm sticking on The Chimes of Midnight.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2021 22:29
|
|
|
Vinylshadow posted:Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without it I mean it was released during a February and Big Finish had a tweet along event in a May....  The music is so good. And the bits where the house tries to absorb Charley into the narrative al a The Shining is just horrifying. And McGann does indignant rage and disgust so well - something the 13th Doctor needs more of. OldMemes fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Dec 24, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2021 23:25
|
|
|
9th Doctor: I am sad that I genocided the Time Lords 10th Doctor: I am sad that the Time Lords are gone 11th Doctor: Oh hey I didn't kill the Time Lords and they're ok, that's cool 12th Doctor: I miss the Time Lords and want to reconnect with Gallifrey 13th Doctor: Gallifrey dead again? Eh I don't care about that lol Josh Lyman posted:I haven't seen any of season Flux and I kinda fell off at the end of the previous season. Is it worth catching up? I know RTD is taking back over and I guess that'll happen after the 2022 specials along with a new Doctor. There's two episodes that would be fine standalone ones in a normal seasons, and some fun characters, but they're in a soup full of utter nonsense, and the ending just fizzles out. It makes little sense as one ongoing story. Whittaker and Dan Bishop are a delight together though. OldMemes fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Dec 26, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 26, 2021 23:04
|
|
|
A very solid episode, and much better than most of Flux. Aside from the opening of the Doctor just...standing there in an open hallway and getting exterminated, 13 felt more assertive this time! Yaz continues to come across as entitled - the Doctor/companion relationship is meant to be a fundamentally unequal one, so her moaning about not being kept in the loop comes across as grating, especially when 13 isn't half as manipulative or chessmaster-y as say, 7 was with Ace. Plus her moping after the clearly asexual Doctor is awkward. At least with Charley pining for 8, it was because Charley came from a very sheltered background, and got over it quite quickly as her relationship with the Doctor developed. Dan continues to be great. The Nick stuff was meant to be funny, but came across as a bit creepy. Aisling Bea was great, but Pauline McLynn was too underused. EDIT: There's a Dalek sale on for Big Finish!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2022 01:14
|
|
|
Daleks are just really entertaining. Briggs gets a lot of mileage out of that voice modulator, especially when he has to have multiple daleks have a conversation.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2022 01:27
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 02:24 |
|
|
When the Doctor was wondering about why the Daleks wanted to kill her, I was just thinking "last great time war"? I was thinking of grabbing the New Adventures of Berenice Summerfield Vol 1 and The Dalek Occupation of Winter in the Big Finish Dalek sale, anything else essential? The Eight Doctor Time War is something I'd like to try, but even with the discounted bundle price, it's too expensive right now for what I've heard aren't that amazing stories. OldMemes fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Jan 3, 2022 |
|
#
¿
Jan 3, 2022 01:07
|
|